Hedge Fund Manager Indicted on 10 Counts

LOS ANGELES (CN) – A hedge fund manager who spent five years running from allegations he scammed people for $200 million was indicted on 10 counts this week by a federal grand jury. Florian Wilhelm Jürgen Homm, 53, of Germany, was arrested two weeks ago at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, after spending five years on the lam. The U.S. Attorney’s Office then filed a four-count criminal complaint accusing him of conspiring to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, and wire fraud and securities fraud. The 10-count grand jury indictment accused him of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, eight counts of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud. In a statement this week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Homm “oversaw a stock manipulation scheme designed to ‘pump up’ the reported returns of his hedge funds, while self-dealing for his own benefit to the detriment of the funds, in a fraud that caused investors to loss approximately $200 million.” He was founder and chief investment officer of Absolute Capital Management Holdings, a Cayman Islands-based investment adviser that managed nine hedge funds from 2004 until September 2007, prosecutors said. He is, in essence, accused of manipulating the prices of thinly traded penny stocks. Homm was a co-owner of the Los Angeles-based broker-dealer, Hunter World Markets, the U.S. attorney said. He and his cohorts are accused of making “more than $53 million via trades made through Hunter World Markets alone,” U.S. prosecutors said after he was arrested. While on the run, Homm published a book that was translated into English under the title, “Rogue Financier: The Adventures of an Estranged Capitalist,” prosecutors said. Council claims in Federal Court. His alleged co-conspirators “have not been indicted at this time,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said this week. Homm is in an Italian jail awaiting extradition.